Environmental Management Systems

The latest episode of the “The Stream by AASHTO” podcast – formerly the Environmental Technical Assistance Program or ETAP podcast – is the first of a two-part series exploring effective transportation management tactics ahead of and during a solar eclipse.

[Above image by AASHTO]

“The Stream by AASHTO” podcast is part of a technical service program for state departments of transportation provided by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. It explores a wide array of environmental topics that affect transportation and infrastructure programs.

The first episode of this two-part series on solar eclipse preparations features insights from Michael White, assistant director of the Safety and Emergency Management Division within in the Missouri Department of Transportation.

White digs into the significance of preparation, planning, training, and effective communication conducted by his division ahead of the solar eclipse event scheduled to affect the United States on April 8. He also offers perspectives on advancing safety protocols and bolstering resilience to ensure operational continuity during such celestial events.

To listen to the full podcast on this topic, click here.

The Washington State Department of Transportation is wrapping up a project aimed at deterring debris flows along U.S. 2/Stevens Pass Highway from “burn scars” left behind by the 2022 Bolt Creek Fire, which burned nearly 15,000 acres in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

[Above photo by WSDOT]

The agency noted in a blog post about the project that wildfires can change the landscape, turning dense trees and vegetation into large areas with ashes and dry soil – areas known as burn scars.

“If it rains a lot or snow on the ground melts really fast, these burn scars can produce fast-moving landslides called debris flows,” WSDOT said. “These can be dangerous and might harm people and property within their path.”

After the Bolt Creek wildfire, WSDOT personnel studied the area and found two areas near the burn scar – about four miles northwest of Skykomish – that posed a “higher risk” of debris flows of mud and loose rock potentially affecting U.S. 2.

“We had to close U.S. 2 east of Gold Bar several times because of the active fire and debris falling onto the highway,” WSDOT noted. “The fire also left a burn scar that will take several years to recover.”

To mitigate the impact of such debris flows on the roadway and surrounding area, the WSDOT built a series of walls, berms, and fences along certain sections of U.S. 2 to protect both the roadway and its stormwater culverts.

WSDOT built two debris fences – one 60 feet long and the other 110 feet long – above specific culverts to help stop detritus from blocking roadway culverts if debris flows occur happens.

Along another section of the roadway, WSDOT built six-foot-tall wall, called a berm, made of natural materials. This berm will guide any potential debris flows away from U.S. 2 to a lower natural “catch” area near the highway. The berm is 94 feet long and required nearly 300 tons of material to build. In spring 2024, the agency said it will add native plant seeds to further help stabilize the berm area.

“Our maintenance crews will keep an eye on the highway along the burn scar, looking for downed trees and limbs, clearing ditches and culverts and looking for any early warning signs of a potential debris flow,” WSDOT noted. “Hopefully, the berm and the fences are never tested by a debris flow, but … we have taken the necessary steps to reduce the risk and keep U.S. 2 open while the area recovers from the Bolt Creek Fire.”

A recent video from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet illustrates how it worked with the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet and other state agencies on a “debris-to-mulch” project that turned thousands of trees downed by major flooding across Eastern Kentucky earlier this year into beneficial mulch.

[Above image via the KYTC]

For the first few weeks after the flooding, KYTC crews focused on removed debris while re-opening several roads and bridges – repairing and replacing damaged bridges with temporary structures.

That work removed more than 403,000 tons of debris from waterways and rights-of-way in Eastern Kentucky as part of the agency’s flood cleanup efforts. The initiative eliminated debris from 48 damaged vehicles while clearing 615 miles of streams and creeks.

Nearly 100,000 tons of wood debris were sent to one of two Kentucky mulching facilities for re-use as part of this program, KYTC noted in the video.

That wood debris ultimately produced about 160,000 cubic yards of mulch; equivalent to almost 2.1 million bags of the mulch product typically sold in home improvement stores, the agency said.

The Illinois Department of Transportation recounted in a recent blog post how it changed its mowing practices over the years to better protect roadside landscapes that are vital to pollinators and native planet life.

[Above photo by the Illinois DOT]

The agency has adopted mowing policies to protect the habitat and migratory patterns of the monarch butterfly and other pollinators that use it as a food source. That policy allows for mowing of the state’s roads in a four-year rotation during the summer. Interstate medians are mowed one year, westbound and southbound interstate right-of-ways are mowed the second year, eastbound and northbound interstate right-of-ways are mowed the third year, and non-interstate routes like Illinois 54 are mowed the fourth year. Then the cycle starts over.

However, Andy Stahr, Jay Keigher, and Kip Rutledge – who work for Illinois DOT’s District 3 – enhanced that program by further limiting roadside mowing along Illinois 54, which runs along a railroad right-of-way in Ford County. That encouraged the spread of native prairie plants onto Illinois DOT’s roadsides.

“We didn’t sow native seeds here,” explained Keigher, a maintenance field engineer for yards at Illinois DOT. “These plants spread from the existing remnant prairie on the railroad property. This wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for our new mowing policy. We would’ve mowed 30 feet wide through here and we used to do that. Since we stopped doing that, I’ve seen more and more plants like these moving up our slopes and onto our backslopes.”

However – great as it is to have the railroad’s prairie spread onto Illinois DOT’s land, noted Stahr, a roadside management specialist for the agency – that doesn’t mean the job is done. While it means keeping roadside mowing to a minimum, it still means doing work to maintain what’s now considered a developing prairie.

“It’s going to be a constant problem because you have weeds coming in every direction,” Stahr added. “You’re always going to have spots where Canada thistle pops up. That’s why you can’t completely step away from it. Every once in a while you’re going to see a patch of something and you’re going to have to go in and herbicide it out and you got to reseed that little patch.”

Keigher emphasized that a lack of maintenance threatens this effort. For example, invasive Russian olive trees will block the sun and kill existing plants if left unchecked. That tree also can attract birds that transport invasive seeds through their excrement and re-contaminate the prairie with non-native and invasive plants.

Thus such invasive plants and trees must be mowed down to the ground and destroyed. “You can’t just quit,” Keigher said. “You have to keep maintaining that.”

The goal is to re-develop a prairie ecosystem that is self-sustaining – a three to five year process, Stahr noted.

“Reconstruction means applying herbicide to kill all existing vegetation at the site and scarifying the soil. Then it is managing the land for up to two years by mowing,” he explained.

“Seed also are drilled into the ground to establish a deep root system. Once it’s seeded, we really don’t have to do anything else to make it grow other than keep the vegetation and weeds down for that first year,” Stahr pointed out. “You may be able to let it go the second year if you get a great response. It’s usually the third year that you can let it go and you’ll see everything start to bloom.”

Done right, the prairie polices itself against invasive plants, he said.

“There’s only so much space in the root system,” Stahr noted. “Once you get all these plants living together in such density like this, they interlock their root systems so aggressively that when a weed seed lands in here, there’s nowhere to germinate and grow. That’s why they’re so low maintenance when you get them established.”

While Keigher would love to see every roadside receive this treatment, he prefers to do smaller quarter-mile prairie sections at a time.

“We’re expanding at the rate where we can maintain it,” he pointed out. “We just can’t do it all because we don’t have enough time to take care of it. It’s a lot. We wanted to make sure we’re successful at it before we bite more than we can chew.”